AUBURN HILLS — The player guarding Michigan phenom Trey Burke in Thursday’s second-round game of the NCAA tournament might be the best player fans never heard of before this week. And he’s most definitely the 13th-seeded Jackrabbits’ key to an upset over the No. 4 Wolverines.

South Dakota State’s Nate Wolters referred to Burke as “probably the national player of the year” Wednesday, referring to the Wooden Award, for which the unassuming and good-natured Wolters is also a finalist.

Crudely compared to “a poor man’s Jimmer Fredette,” Wolters has become a mid-major darling at South Dakota State, a standout of the Summit League, home to nearby Oakland University, which is hosting this weekend’s event at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Wolters is the first player with consecutive seasons of 20 points scored, five assists and five rebounds. He also scored a NCAA Division I-best 53 points in a game Feb. 7.

Jackrabbits coach Scott Nagy said Wolters will be tasked with guarding Burke, but the Wolverines will counter with Tim Hardaway Jr.

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“Just watching film and just studying their action, you know there’s a lot of ball-screens involved with Nate,” Hardaway said.

Both Wolters and Burke seem cognizant of the speculation about their impending matchup, although their teams haven’t met since 1988, long before South Dakota State ever joined the Division I ranks.

“A lot has been made of it,” Burke said. “That’s something I’m not trying to focus on as far as a one-on-one matchup. I obviously know he’s a really good player. Thirty percent of their offense runs through him. It’s my job to try to slow him down and make things tough for him.”

Michigan coach John Beilein went as far as to refer to the Jackrabbits’ offense as an “amoeba” for its fluid nature.

“They can do so many different things — that you can’t really organize for,” Beilein said. “And then with (Wolters), he just finds people that are open.

“There’s a time to run a play and there’s a time to be a player. They do that mix really well.”

A brash Twitter parody, @FakeNateWolters, is a stern departure from the St. Cloud, Minn., native’s personality as you can get. Nagy does, however, wish at times the reserved Wolters would show his passion.

“I would love for him to show more emotion sometimes, but when he does, then we know, because he’s so low-key” Nagy said. “But when we do see emotion from him, our kids really respond to it.”

Wolters and the Jackrabbits are making their second consecutive appearance in the Big Dance out of the one-bid Summit League after having played Baylor closely in a second-round matchup last season. Wolters, as well as his teammates and coach, said they feel much less starstruck after their debut, more business-like in their sophomore appearance.

Far removed from the bright lights, Wolters noted the time spent watching many of Burke’s national TV appearances — and the one-time No. 1 Wolverines have had many this season.

“He’s a great player, probably the best point guard in the country,” Wolters said of Burke. “So we try to learn things from him and I mean, he’s really good with pick-and-roll and a good shooter. He’s going to be tough to guard.”

Little more than a week after taking a second consecutive conference championship on a court very near his Brookings, S.D., campus, Wolters and the Jackrabbits will face a similar disadvantage on a larger scale at The Palace against the “hometown” Wolverines.

“I know we will have a lot of support tomorrow and it may feel like a home game, hopefully, depending on how many fans come out,” Burke said. “Our fans have been great all year. They’ve been great at lifting us up.”

South Dakota State will have an ally, though, in Michigan State fans. Nagy mentioned several Spartans fans approached his team at dinner Tuesday to tell the coach they would be pulling for the Jacks’ upset of their sworn enemies in maize and blue.

“That’s every kid’s dream to his a shot like that,” he said. “I remember as a little kid (it) just being a huge upset story and he was a great player. That’s what all these mid-majors dream about.”

That Valparaiso win, aside from Oakland’s “play-in” victory over Alabama A&M in 2005, was the last time the league, formerly the Mid-Continent Conference, notched an NCAA tournament victory.

Thursday night, Wolters will have his shot at history in a big way, but it’s not likely to affect his persona or demeanor if he leads the Jackrabbits to what would likely be a much buzzed-about tournament upset.

Paul Kampe covers Oakland University basketball for Journal Register Newspapers. Email him at paul.kampe@oakpress.com and read his blog “Grizzlies Den” at TheOaklandPress.com/blogs/sports.